Well yesterday, I stopped to get some shad before I went after some cats. I through my net out once, and came up with 3 huge shad. At first I thought they were bass!

One weighed 3.2 pounds! While the other two were right at 1.8! They were gizzard shad! I will post pics soon.

Whats the biggest shad you have seen/caught?

A Friend snagged one below texoma that we guestimated at 31/2 or 4.
MO

I caught one in a pond that was 18" in length, not sure how much it weighed but it was huge !

we used to catch them in the cast net in lake borgne ... they looked like baby tarpon - at least 18-20" long. they get almost that big in braunig lake too.

We used to catch these huge shad on Buchanan when we were getting bait for stripers. We wouldn't use them at first, thinking they were too big. Then, we tried them, and found out that the stripers loved them. The bigger the better.

I was fishing the creek area of Bachman one year and was throwing a lil grub on a 1/16 or 1/8 head and had something nail it!Almost a 2 lb.shad!!!
I didn't think they would hit a lure,but this guy must have swallowed alot of stuff they normally don't eat.It was huge!!Threw him back but floated up a lil later!

Man, you should have turned it in for a state record!
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/programs/fishrecords/freshwater/fwunr.phtml

Shad question: How does one determine a good area for castnetting shade? I know you look for them surfacing, but how do you know what's under them when you throw your net? I intend to use my electronics to check the bottom in areas before throwing the net.

I recently made a visit to my money deposit at BPS and left enough with them to get the net, big tank & pump, chemicals etc. and thought that might be the thing to do for both here in North Texas and down on the coast.

Now to try and not rip it up on stumps etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

We used to catch 4pound plus shad from Lake Wichita in Wichita Falls before the water level was dropped but now it seems the average large one is around 2 lbs.
B Brown depending on the lake try points where the wind has blown for a few days.Most of the time on a graph you will not be able to see the small stickups, stumps,etc unless you turn the senesitivity up really high . One little small stickup ,rock can tear the net unfortunately.
Most shad will pattern just like anyother species, go where the foods at.

Some shad species get really big. Those shad you caught in the net might only be useful as cut bait. Any cat that could get ahold of tat shad would be one hell of a fish.